Police Chase Snares 3 Robbery Suspects; Gun, Cash Recovered

Giving chase with a helicopter and six patrol cars, police arrested two men and a woman and charged them with robbing an Anaheim Hills clothing store at gunpoint just nine minutes earlier Friday night.

Police not only caught their suspects during that nine-minute span but recovered a handgun and a sack of cash, said Anaheim Police Sgt. Harold Parkinson, who supervised the operation.

“It was fun,” Parkinson said Saturday.

Parkinson said it is not every day that police catch suspects in such short order, but it also is not every day that there is an armed robbery in the Santa Ana Canyon.

“A guy (police officer) could work in the canyon and not fill out a robbery report in six months,” he said.

Two Entered Store

Anaheim police and a store employee gave this account:

About 7:15 p.m. Friday, two men entered the ClothesTime store, one of a chain of discount clothing outlets, in a small shopping center at La Palma Avenue and Imperial Highway.

Displaying a gun, one of the men ordered all 19 people inside to lie on the floor. The two then began ransacking the store’s safe and a cash register, taking more than $1,000. As the robbers worked, a woman driver in a Thunderbird waited for them outside.

Terrified, the four employees and 15 customers complied with the robbers’ orders and no one was injured. Meanwhile, someone in the shopping area noticed the robbery and called the emergency 911 telephone number to report a robbery in progress.

A police helicopter arrived at the clothing store just as the Thunderbird was pulling away. Joined by two police cars, the helicopter followed the car toward the nearby Riverside Freeway.

At the freeway on-ramp, the Thunderbird, which had been going about 50 m.p.h., spun out, eventually skidding to a stop on wet pavement.

Suspects Fled

The three suspects jumped out and ran west along the freeway embankment, but authorities in the helicopter spotted them as they were trying to hide in some bushes. Police on the ground made the arrests. A handgun and money bag bearing the name “ClothesTime” were found near the car.

Parkinson said none of the suspects put up a fight. “There were too many guns against them,” he said. By then, six patrol cars had joined the chase.

Tony White, 23, of Oakland and Eugene Shelton, 39, of Anaheim were being held at the Anaheim Jail. Judy Banks, 24, of Compton was being held at the Orange County women’s jail. All were charged with suspicion of armed robbery and held on $50,000 bail.